Chuck will always get some degree of leeway based on what he inherited. We can (and should) debate how fast he should have been able to rebuild the program or our ultimate ceiling he’s capable of, but the state of affairs when he took over Miami football was a way different animal than Louisiana Tech (17-8 the two seasons prior there compared to 4-20 here).
To quinoaburger’s point, Martin has gotten us to a solid but very average place; that’s a fine position to be in if you’re Duke or Kansas and have very little football history as a basketball school in a P5 conference, but not one with our pedigree.
The offensive line coming into last week was 83rd in yards per carry when on schedule, 83rd in the percentage of runs that gained nothing or lost yardage, 106th in not getting 2 yards when running on 3rd and short, 4th and short, or similar goal-to-go situations, and 112th in the percentage of runs that didn’t gain 4 yards when 4 yards were available. The passing numbers were way better. Also, if you check out the defensive line numbers on the same site, we’re in the top half of Division 1 in every category, and the top 20 in 5 categories.
I think too many people have couched our inability to run the ball effectively in short yardage situations in the deep inexperience of our OL. At this stage, our most inexperienced OL have about a dozen games under their belts. Five of our OL now have between 25-34 games experience. Extreme O-Line inexperience should no longer be our primary excuse.
Here’s a quote from Saylor on the decision to move on from Maria in WBB.
“If you look out over the 15 years, I think we have a pretty good snapshot of what the program has been like,” Sayler said. “I just want more than that. I want more than one championship in 15 years. I certainly think this university sells itself in a great way, and we can really bring some kids in here that can get us to that level of being championship contenders on a much more consistent basis than we have done.”
Saylor should have a good snapshot when Chuck’s contact is up.
Actually, we are competing for a championship on a pretty regular basis. We won one and we’re within 1 win of getting to the MACC pretty much every year for the last several years. We kill our bowl chances by over scheduling every year. Other MAC programs have an FCS game and a game against a poor D1 team like FIU or New Mexico State so that they can go bowling with a 5 or 6 win MAC season. That leads to more practice time, better recruiting, and more fans getting interested. You build the program up year after year.
mz’s thread pointing out just how poor our O- line and rb’s were in short yardage situations is why we lost all those close games. That happened because of some guys we did not have this year who would have made the difference. Bestor was that guy in 2019. Bowser would have been the guy this year. Our two all MAC Offensive linemen left.
We are close and could have a breakout season at any time. Most of you lack the patience to see the process through. That includes seeing the coaching staff improve and learn from experience. Miami has always won by recruiting and development, through old fashioned hard work. Transfer portal should be used only for a player or two a year to address problem areas.
Here is your personal gripe with Chuck’s coaching Saturday. Same dumb choice he made at Army. We had been failing most of the day on plays insides the 5 yard line, all year in fact, plus we had the better kicker. Should have kicked the point after and continued playing, just like we did at the end of regulation. We had the edge going forward, and he chose to ignore that and gamble on a situation we had done poorly in all day. Coaching is playing the odds in your favor. That was a terrible gamble, the odds were against us. That is twice Chuck, learn from your mistakes.
My patience, Dick, has been eroding and has actually run out. I disagree with some of your points. I do agree we needed to prolong the game against Army, but one time making that decision should have been enough. Just one.
I do think we are close to having a breakout year but we need better play calling on offense
We do schedule hard but I am disappointed we cant compete with Army- heck Ball State beat them this year.
I actually liked the two point idea because of the new rule. The game was lost in the series after first and goal from the one- i didnt love of any of those play calls
Kent State - the team that just eliminated Miami - played Texas A&M, Iowa and Maryland this season. All are bowl bound. One beat Alabama and one is headed for the B1G Championship game. Kent won 6 MAC games, including a win against NIL. Next season they play Washington, Oklahoma and Georgia.
Ball State beat Army. We beat Ball State. We could have - probably should gave - beaten Army. They are not Michigan or Alabama. Our schedule, the fact we lost two offensive linemen we didn’t expect to return and the failure to capture a running back from the transfer portal are not valid excuses for this mediocre year. We need to stop making lame excuses and just start winning again.
Bowling Green beat Minnesota…patience give me a break, Dick…how can you even write that?
Year 8, the guy has previous HC coaching experience…comes from P5 as OC…yet can’t figure out, NOT to throw a bomb on every first down, if not down one and two.
Yes the schedules are not easy…but we don’t beat Western KY, Marshall’s, Louisiana’s, UC when they are down…or beatable Minnesota’s, Purdue’s…or weak Mississippi St…and the like…we don’t compete with the ND’s…etc.
Western Michigan beat Pitt, BG…I repeat BG beat Minnesota, Ball St Army…I watched Ball St a couple years ago compete with ND, Toledo nearly beat them this year…none of these MAC teams (WMU, Toledo, BSU) were MAC Champs in those/this year(s) - meaning was not a breakout year or dream MAC season.
Miami goes to ND, the game is over in 6 minutes.
Yet we’re close to a breakout…in year 9 or 10?
Too late…for Chuck to “breakout.” He is what he is…a guy who rode the Burger King’s coattails.
Also, the guy has been our AD for like a decade.
S-a-y-l-e-r
This board has not continued the tradition of “smartest mid major message board in the country”
Skins,
One of the best moves Chuck made was a few years ago he took over as defensive coordinator and had two co offensive coordinators who call the plays. That is when we started competing for championships. So when you want to complain about play calls, he is not making them. We could complain about how did those 3 long touchdowns happen against our defense that Chuck is in charge of. Chuck would have decided to go for the two, but I think the actual play call comes from the offensive coaches.
Of our 4 major sports, the only one which competes for championships regularly is football. It has been a dozen years since mens hoops competed. Womens hoops was looking good for two years until our coach left for Marquette, but before and after we were not any good and were at the bottom of the MAC. Hockey has been competing for last place for the last 5 or 6 years. The only one we can take any pride in is football. Maybe basketball will be near the top of the MAC this year? Hockey and women’s hoops are not looking good. Why fire your best coach?
Miami’s HC in FB (CM) had won D-2 Championships ++ (or whatever Grand Valley was back then) so it’s not like he never knew how to win. So it may well be that his coaching intellect (aka The Peter Principle) has finally caught up with him in a D-1 program. He has certainly been given enough years to show what he’s got…and the lack of coaching growth has to be worrisome to many here…altho not to many beyond this board.
If Miami is serious about football, Miami cannot afford to keep him and insure continued mediocrity; at the same time, given the financial bind they are in perpetually, they cannot afford to get rid of him (because the stakes/ salary levels keep escalating faster than the departmental revenues and the school simply cannot continue to tap student fees for athletics, coaching buyouts, etc.
We’re cursed either way.
100% agree. I mentioned in a few threads that we should start a “fire Eric Koehler/James Patton.” I know there is a lot of love for Patton, his CV, and the Miami connection, but boy the OL and the running game have been quite weak, to say the least. Eric is a GVSU person, so I assume CM would not get rid of him. But that is where AD should start. Fire one or two of these folks as some sort of heads-up. We are recruiting reasonably well, our defense is top-notch (mostly), so let’s fix the offensive game.
AGC–I agree that the running game has been weak. The Oline is just not performing in run blocking. Pass blocking is another story. We are solid in pass blocks. Brett had time to throw many times. But the tackles are a RSfr and a True fr who both played all season. They are young and make mistakes but are big and talented. They’ll learn, or they will be replaced. We just don’t get a good push from our center and guards. They are big guys, so it surprises me we can’t run a 2-3 yd td.